In the contemporary era, with our record levels of wealth, technological advancement and scientific understanding, it follows that our culture should be as groundbreaking as everything else. We should be composing the best ever music, building the best ever buildings, and painting the best ever art. Yet in most ways, the culture of the past was more sophisticated and refined. Why?
Modern culture often values function over form. Take mosques for example. If you go to countries like Iran or Turkey, the oldest mosques are utterly sublime: the attention to detail is breathtaking. Go to any mosques built within the last half a century, and although the engineering skills have increased, the mosques no longer demonstrate the same intricacy or craftsmanship. The same could be said of churches, or most buildings with a medieval and a modern equivalent. We just want thinks to work well, and care less for the effort put into it. Minimalism is elevated, and ‘fussiness’ deplored. But perhaps we have lost something.
Mass production has deprived manufactured products of their personality. Which is more beautiful, the handmade dress or one made in a third-world sweatshop? Which employs more skill, the plate made by hand in a pottery, or one churned out in a ceramic factory? By making things in bulk and on the cheap, we lose the diverse identities and talents of the individual. Marx noticed this in what he called the alienation of labour from its products. Unlike Marx, I’m not calling for capitalism to be replaced. But perhaps the efficiency of capitalism is also its ugliness. Just as significantly, perhaps the globalisation of capitalism has caused the different cultures of the world to become more similar, just as the nature of our economies has converged.
Conservatives are generally the ones who deplore modern culture the most. They argue the decline of culture is a result of the decline of traditional morality. Look at how much sex and mindless violence there is in culture nowadays. Would a moral and truly religious society permit that? Equally, culture has become derivative in its endless pursuit of being anti-establishment, anti-tradition and often overtly left wing. Trying to be edgy or countercultural is no longer profound when counterculture is the culture.
Culture has fallen victim to the desire for everything to be quick and easy. Fast food may not taste very nice, and may be bad for you, but its easily made and everyone knows what they’re getting. Modern pop music uses a familiar song structure, simple melodies, predictable chord sequences and is virtually always in 4/4 time. But it’s catchy, short enough to be played on the radio and easy to make, so it catches on. In the age of convenience, culture which values time, effort, and acquired tastes, is sidelined.
But for most younger people, modern culture isn’t so bad. There is plenty of good art, music, films, literature, food and architecture out there- you just have to know where to look. Globalisation has given rise to new forms of culture, such as Tex-Mex food, Korean pop or Nigerian cinema. Moreover, they decry critics of modern culture as being socially conservative reactionaries, overly nostalgic for a golden age which never existed, and who view good taste from a parochial, Western viewpoint. Ultimately, the desire to assess culture in a hierarchical fashion is a nonsense when you consider that it is social construct, good taste is entirely subjective, and everything is constantly evolving. Those who wish to wear three-piece suits and tailcoats, listen to Renaissance or Baroque music and read Chaucer are perfectly free to do so. The rest of us will move on happily.
I am answering as a senior citizen, getting moresenior every day. What I find so distressing is the crudeness, violence and vulgarity of debate, discourse and a lot of entertainment. It seems to be everywhere you look and listen. You can disagree with someone without calling them a f**ing c*nt of whatever. Look at the news comments on the internet and a lot of the language is really foul. What sort of upbringing have these people had? They get away with it because they can spout off without revealing their real names. The very word “ culture” has been demeaned. Glad I’m a senior citizen, getting more senior every day.
The tribalism, the cancel culture, the outrage culture, the obsession over race, gender, and sexuality. The PC culture aka SJWs.. The fake cries of white supremacy, or systemic racism.. I am black, 24 years old.. My first and ONLY experience with racism, has been from other blacks, and white leftist, not so-called right-wingers. It is the ridiculousness of universities, that have now spilled out into the real world.. It is like we are letting the patients run the asylum.
It also feels like we are sliding more, and more into some dystopian movie, book, or video game, like the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077… You read the lore books to that old pen, and paper game, and look at what is going on in the world today, it reads like prophecy. So much hate seems to go around, and again from the left primarily, which seems so intolerant, and facistic.. I a black man, who happens to be gay, and in a relationship with a white man, who is a cop… Gets hate from crazy leftist, who call me a white supremacist, bootlicker, race trader, self-hater, and it gets worse from blacks mostly.. If people of the left, are supposed to be tolerant, I am not seeing it.
It also seems people lack common sense greatly, don’t know how to think, or even want to in most cases.. No one seems to use reason, or logic.. Seems like its ok to lie, and do other bad things, if you aren’t guilty of “wrong thought”.. So much of everything seems fake…
I feel pretty bad for immigrants who have come to America, fleeing communism/socialism, and other evils like the drug cartel.. Only to find Americans, who to have that here.. I have a feeling something seriously bad is coming… Feels as if we are in the beginnings of another civil war.
I agree with virtually everything you said, thanks for expressing my thoughts for me ??
What a fantastic response. A+
Absolutely! This is perfect!
Oh Ryan, I felt this statement deeply.
Knowing there are other people out there who make the same observations makes it all bearable.
Let’s hope things take a more positive turn, and soon.
Best to you.
Wry smile at referencing the Canterbury Tales at the end. A dusty old Renaissance Era indictment of the dominant culture, and a presage of Modernism.
The idea in question is asked on what scale? Asking if our world and society should not have grown is the easiest question to answer. Obviously, without the growth in culture, what would we be? Just because you necessarily do not agree with the changes, does not mean they should not have happened. Look at it this way, to judge the new found culture of the 21st Century is to hark on the reason why we are here. Take into consideration, everything starts out with something, but growth and change is needed. Improving our world, society, and culture is what we are meant to be doing. Yes, the bad things are bad, but not everything is bad. Let us look at the good this growth has brought us. Look at all that has been accomplished in the past century. Let us not just look at the inventions that make our lives easier, but the growth of humans and the power African Americans and Women now hold.
All civilizations decline. The people who really run things understood this long ago. They theorized that if you manage the decline, you can steer what direction it goes, kind of like well placed and timed explosives making a structure fall the way you want it to. Their goal, as Huxley suggested, is the Final Revolution; a Brave New World in which the elite live like an aristocracy and you live in a controlled, trans-human dystopia. They have destroyed much of what was thought to be good and normal, and continue to drag us down until there is no hope of reversing their plan. Your mistake is in thinking that all of this just happened organically.
Absolutely. For more on this, read:
The Case Against the Modern World by Daniel Schwindt
The Reactionary Mind by Michael Warren Davis
The Boniface Option by Andrew Isker
Kindergarden of Eden by Evan Sayet
Progress Debunked by Samuel Thomsen
For those who agree that modern culture is awful, I write poems exposing the evil and showing good alternatives: https://classicalpoets.org/?s=Joshua+C.+Frank